Five genealogists have started the Keep Genealogical Records Open Workgroup (KGROW). Their goal is to educate government officials and the public about the truth behind identity theft- and terror-related efforts to close public records.

“We find there’s no evidence that open public records contribute to identity theft or terrorism to any measurable degree," says KGROW co-chair Jean Foster Kelley.

States have passed 616 record closure laws since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Now state public records laws must comply with the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, which could negatively impact your attempts to find relatives’ birth and death records. States can—but aren’t required to—make concessions for genealogical research.

For more on public records access, see Family Tree Magazine's December 2006 special report. If you know of a threat to records access in your state (such as excessive fee hikes or record restrictions and closures), inform your fellow researchers on the new FamilyTreeMagazine.com Public Records Alert Forum.

The proposal is a response to members’ attempts to stop the sale of the society’s headquarters building (finalized in March), but Stillman says it’s not retaliation. “We’re updating our form of governance so the society isn’t exposed to a repeat of the loss of funds. If we stood by and ignored the six-figure loss we incurred, we’d be shirking our duties as fiduciaries.”

NYG&B trustees say “a handful” of members delayed the sale, causing a loss of investment income based on the $24 million sale price.

If passed, the proposal will do away with proxy voting system, which Stillman says New York State laws require. (The society must mail ballots to members, who can send back their votes, cast votes at a meeting, or designate meeting attendees to vote on their behalf.) If the proposal passes, the board would appoint new officers rather than hold elections.

Before issuing the proposal, NYGB’s board surveyed other non-profit organizations and consulted with the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS), whose members passed a similar measure—after a similar debate—several years ago. NEHGS has an advisory board in addition to its board of directors. “I wouldn’t know what our board would say about adopting that structure, because we didn’t fully consider it,” says Stillman.

He says NYG&B members will still have access to the group’s services and online resources, though he doesn’t yet know what the society will do with its research collections and financial assets. (The board has two years from the building sale date to move.) “After we take care of housekeeping matters and governance … we will face those huge questions and we’ll benefit from all the debate.”

That debate won’t lead to reduced membership, he predicts. “I think people will act in their self-interest and then continue to enjoy the benefits of membership.”

A simmering dispute within the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society (NYG&B) has risen to a boil as the society’s 5,000 members consider a proposal from the Board of Directors to divest themselves of voting privileges.

The dispute began in September 2006, when the board voted to sell the society’s 58th Street headquarters in New York City. In a letter to members, chairman Henry C.B. Lindh cited a shortage of funds for crucial building upgrades, and said that a sale would let the organization focus on the "research and education that are the core of [its] mission."

Members voted to approve the sale at an Oct. 12 meeting, and beforehand by proxy. The society hasn’t announced its new home, but is permitted to remain in the building for two years

In January, at least one member suggested, in a note on Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter blog, that a mail merge glitch may have prevented some members from receiving proxy vote letters. President William C. Johns sent a response denying a problem occurred and calling the e-mail “a fishing expedition attempting to identify any reason to delay or thwart the approved transaction.” (Johns hasn’t yet responded to voice mail messages left today.)

In June, the NYG&B sent members and proxy voting materials and a letter about the proposal to remove their voting privileges and leave decision-making power with the 15-member board of directors. (The New England Historic Genealogical Society operates in a similar way, but it has both a board of directors and a larger advisory board.)

In the letter, board chairman Waddell W. Stillman said passing the proposal would streamline the society’s operations and allow faster response to challenges and opportunities. About the NYG&B building sale, he added, “A handful of members, acting to thwart the unanimous vote of the board of trustees and overwhelming vote of the membership, delayed the sale for months. The NY State Supreme Court felt obligated to hear these few dissenters out, long after the NY State Attorney General had endorsed the sale, because our governance system gives each individual member legal standing to object to a proposed action.”

The full proposal was available by request and on the NYG&B Web site members-only section.

That’s when members’ e-mails and message board postings really began to fly, all encouraging members to vote down the proposal. (Supporters of the measure have been quiet.) Some examples we found:

Their messages express concern over the directors’ intentions for the society’s assets, which now include $24 million in addition to the library, online resources, and publications and education programs.

In-person voting on the proposal will take place at a July 19 meeting at the NYG&B headquarters. We’ll keep you updated.

Between 1850 and 1939, more than 5 million Europeans left for the New World via Hamburg, Germany. They're honored in that city’s BallinStadt Port of Dreams museum, which opened July 4.

The museum is in a reconstruction of BallinStadt, an emigration facility—amenities included living quarters, churches, a synagogue and a kosher dining hall—that served 2 million emigrants. (The original building was destroyed during World War II.) Most of those outbound passengers were Eastern Europeans.

Exhibits relate the journeys of specific emigrants. Walk up to life-size models of the passengers, and they’ll “speak” about their migration experiences.

Similar to the Ellis Island museum we enjoy stateside, BallinStadt’s main entrance hall boasts a family history center. Visitors can search genealogical databases including Hamburg emigrants. Unlike Ellis Island, though, the Hamburg emigration lists aren’t free on BallinStadt's Web site. Instead, the site directs you to Ancestry.com, where the records are part of the $155.40-per-year US Deluxe records collection.

(Editorial aside: What's with the erratic version naming? Things were moving along fine with 1 through 11, then we got year names with versions 2005 and 2006, then back to numbers with Family Tree Maker 16, and now we're on version 2008. Is this just to confuse users into thinking they've missed an upgrade?)

Files created with the beta version may or may not open in the release version. Among other warnings (it's almost like the genealogical equivalent of bungee jumping): The beta Family Tree Maker 2008 will stop working August 24, so you should export any stored GEDCOMs before then.

The arrangement recognizes the contributions of BYU—the only US university to offer an undergraduate degree in family history—to TGN's workforce. "We are grateful for the many graduates who are now employed at our company," says TGN president Tim Sullivan. "As next-door neighbors, we will continue to tap the knowledge and experience of professors and students."

Ancestry Library Edition has many of the same genealogy databases as
Ancestry.com, including censuses, immigration records and military
records. If your public library subscribes to Ancestry Library Edition,
you can search the databases for free—ask at the reference desk or
check your library's Web site.

FindMyPast.com has added another decade to its collection of outbound passenger lists from the UK, upping the coverage to 1890 to 1929. Eventually, the database will reach 1960.

These emigration records could be useful if you can’t find your ancestors in US passenger lists—if they departed from or traveled through a port in Britain. (Many immigration routes took passengers through British ports, so it may be worth a try even if your roots aren’t British.)

Two cool features of FindMyPast's search:1. You can add the name of a traveling companion (such as a spouse or child) to your search. 2. If the site doesn't find any exactly matching records, it will show you near matches and point out the differences (see below).You can search FindMyPast.com for free, but to see record images, subscribe to the Voyager (about $50 for 30 days) or Explorer ($251 per year) package. Or, go the pay-per-view route: Record views cost as little as 3 units, which you can buy in packages starting around $10.

The Generations Network (TGN) is taking another step in marketing its Ancestry.com subscription databases to the genealogical layperson—in this case, scrapbookers. TGN and scrapbooking supply manufacturer K&Company have joined forces to create a line of Ancestry.com-branded products.

Each album in the line comes with a seven-day trial membership to Ancestry.com. Also available are heritage-themed papers, a family tree poster and a research guidebook.

The partnership attempts to capitalize on scrapbookers’ desire to preserve photos and record memories—and their willingness to spend in the process. An industry survey released in 2004 reported one in four households have a scrapbooker, with 75 percent of them spending at least $25 a month on scrapbooking-related products. The average scrapbooker owns $1,853 worth of supplies. (Do you think she can afford an Ancestry.com subscription?)

Each product from K&Company’s Ancestry.com line will set a scrapbooker back another $2.99 to $31.99.

After my trip to build houses in a hurricane-ravaged New Orleans neighborhood, I’m slightly tanner, much better with a hammer, and more knowledgeable about the Crescent City’s history and culture.

Our volunteer group worked on the Musicians’ Village, a Habitat for Humanity project in the Upper Ninth Ward that celebrates New Orleans’ musical heritage. Amidst all the construction, I did get to see a few historical places, including:

Preservation Hall has been a popular place to hear old-school New Orleans Jazz since 1961. Only a hundred people at a time can pack inside. I sat on the floor about a foot from the band and had to duck the trombone a couple of times.

The Louisiana State Museum has history exhibits in the Cabildo (see an inside view below; it was the seat of government under Spanish rule), where the Louisiana Purchase agreement was signed in 1803. A genealogical tidbit I picked up there: Don't overlook New Orleans as your immigrant ancestors' arrival port. Many Europeans who wanted to settle along or west of the Mississippi River heard they’d have an easier time reaching their destinations from New Orleans.

New Orleans has strong Catholic roots. A church has stood on the St. Louis Cathedral site since 1718. The current building (below, with the Cabildo on the left) was finished in 1793 and overhauled during the 1850s. (Read more about Louisiana churches from John Kendall’s digitized History of New Orleans.)

You’ve probably heard about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ ambitious plans to index and digitize all the millions of records in its collection and make them available for free on its FamilySearch Web site.

Now you can get a taste of what’s to come: FamilySearch Labs has added its new record searching interface to the roster of projects the public can preview.

FamilySearch spokesperson Paul Nauta says this system will let genealogists search Family History Library microfilms that have been digitized to date, as well as digital images of genealogical records as they’re acquired from the field. The system also allows for quicker posting of the indexes being generated by volunteers through FamilySearch Indexing. It'll be part of the new, revamped FamilySearch site the church plans to roll out this fall.

To see a demo, go to FamilySearch Labs and click Record Search, then select the link to watch the Getting Started video. You can also get a sneak peek at the Pedigree Viewer (for online family trees) and Life Browser (for saving and sharing photos and stories).

Click Comments below for information from Diane on how the search works.